Half Moon

Mamo (Ishmail Ghaffari), a brusque Kurdish musician living in Iran has spent months trying to arrange a permit for one final concert in Kurdish Iraq. When this is resolved, his problems really start. He sets about haranguing his ten errant uninterested sons into joining him and has to deal with belligerent police before he even makes it to the stage.

Bahman Ghobadi is best known for A Time for Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly, and the hint of absurdity in each becomes broad comedy here as the film segues into a magic realist tone. Half Moon might disappoint admirers of Ghobadi’s earlier work looking for something more sober. It is more useful to see this film as a venture in trying to incorporate not so much bigger themes as broader tones. Minimal extras.